


Captive

by meyari



Series: Hospitality [25]
Category: DCU - Comicverse, Smallville
Genre: Alternate Universe - Slavery, Brainwashing, Harems, Multi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-08-26
Updated: 2011-08-26
Packaged: 2017-10-23 02:31:38
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,171
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/245312
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/meyari/pseuds/meyari
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>While out patrolling the country, Superman encounters one of Lionel's warriors.  Defeating her gives them surprising insight into exactly what they're up against, as well as a new ally against Lionel.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Captive

**Author's Note:**

> Somehow when I posted this I didn't put it into the Hospitality series. It should be between Chapter 14 and Chapter 15 but at this point I can't find a way to resequence things without completely deleting and re-uploading the series. Sorry for any confusion!

Clark hesitated in midair as he heard a gate forming in the Manor. It didn't sound like a threat given how Bruce reacted but Clark still listened hard until he recognized the unique, almost musical sound that it made. He smiled, relieved. Hopefully Barbara would have some information for them. She didn't contact them just to visit all that often, though Clark and Dick both missed her presence in the Manor.

Once Bruce went through the gate and it dissipated, Clark returned to his patrol. Gotham was in good hands tonight but the rest of the country wasn't. Most of the secret heroes had gathered in Gotham and, to Clark's amusement, most of them were keeping a very close eye on Red Arrow and Nightwing as they patrolled together. There was little likelihood of Dick being reinjured tonight, not when he had Red Arrow, Green Arrow, Black Canary, the three Amazons, Conner, Mia, Red Knight and even Tim watching over him, though most of them were doing it from the background.

Instead of focusing on Gotham, Clark patrolled the rest of the country. Lionel's men were dangerous everywhere, not just in whichever city he happened to be visiting at the given time. The part that bothered Clark the most was that their number kept growing without any visible signs of recruitment or training. Add that to the people who disappeared on a regular basis, never to be seen again, and Clark was fairly certain that Lionel's troops were actually spelled into obedience rather than serving him willingly.

Star City was calm when Clark flew over it. New York and Metropolis both had minor crimes going on which Clark helped stop. He hesitated over San Francisco, bothered by a very strange raid that appeared to be about to start. The troops there seemed to have gathered as if they were going to raid a large noble house, though Clark could see no signs of their doing anything illegal or which might threaten Lionel's rule. The leader of the troops was a woman with golden skin and long red hair that hung out the back of her helmet. She directed the soldiers as if she'd been born to command, though Clark could hear a certain monotone drone in her voice.

When the attack began Clark dove down to defend the House. He had no idea who they were or why they'd been targeted but it truly didn't matter. There was no way that he could allow the attack to go forward, not when he could hear people screaming and begging for mercy in the House at the same time that the commander was ordering everyone inside to be executed.

"Seize him!" the female commander ordered as soon as Clark appeared.

"Never!" Clark snapped back at her, using his Son of the Sun voice. It normally made people hesitate, well, other than Lionel's troops. They always attacked without reservation.

The regular troops surged at Clark but he was too quick for them and was able to dart out of the way. Several quick punches and using a torn up small tree as a staff sent them flying. To his surprise, the female commander charged at Clark, hitting him hard enough that Clark actually felt it. He took to the air and then gasped when her hair took flame and she flew after him.

"Who are you?" Clark murmured as he flew higher and higher.

The woman followed him, firing blasts of flaming energy at Clark. As he didn't know if they were magical, and thus dangerous to him, or merely physical, and thus probably not, Clark dodged the blasts. His armor would probably have protected him either way but Clark preferred not to take the risk if he could help it. Bruce hated it when Clark got injured in combat.

They passed the cloud layer and went even higher, up into the regions of the sky where rivers of air blasted across the planet. To his surprise, the woman kept pace with him, flying as if she were born to the sky like Clark. Her blasts were getting more accurate so Clark went higher still, up into the regions where the air was so thin that it was almost impossible to breathe. Even then the woman followed him, though he could hear her starting to pant.

He arced completely out of the atmosphere and into the cold vacuum of the space between worlds. It only took three seconds for the woman to pass out and begin to fall back towards the earth below. Clark dove down and caught her, quickly tearing off the helmet that obscured her features. She was beautiful underneath, about the same age as Dick, with full lips and a strong face that showed signs of pain and loss.

"First one we've ever caught," Clark mused as he sped them back to the cave. "Better get you secured before you wake up."

She was stirring by the time they got back to the cave a few seconds later, but she seemed disoriented and confused. Tim was there, using the magical monitors to follow Dick and Roy on their patrol.

"Superman!" Tim gasped. "What's wrong? Who is she?"

"I don't know yet," Clark answered. "She's very strong and gifted. We need to secure her before she fully wakes. She was one of Lionel's secret troops."

"Right."

Together they got the woman into the most secure manacles that they had in the Cave. Clark was just locking them shut when the woman gasped and came fully aware. She screamed with enough horror that Tim squeaked and jumped back. As she started to struggle, Clark caught her shoulders and held her as still as he could. Her terror was so strong that she nearly wrenched free of Clark's grip.

"We're not going to hurt you!" Clark yelled over her screams. They seemed to be in a different language, one that he didn't know. "It's okay! We're not going to hurt you!"

"Let me go!" she bellowed as her eyes glowed green and her hair flamed. "Let me _go!_ "

"I can't let you hurt him!" Clark snapped at her.

Tim was cowering against the wall behind Clark. It seemed to be the only thing that got through to her as she stopped struggling for a moment and blinked at Clark. He cautiously took his hands off of her shoulders, waiting for her to struggle, to attack, to do something to hurt Tim, but none of that happened. Instead she keened and jerked at the manacles as if they hurt her just by being on her body.

"This is… Robin," Clark said, deciding at the last moment that proper names probably weren't a good idea. "I'm Superman. Who are you?"

"Koriand'r," she replied. She'd started to shake. "I will not, _will not_ …"

Her voice trailed off and she curled into a ball around her bound arms. This wasn't at all what Clark had expected but it was certainly better than continuing attacks. Bruce ran in, taking in the sight of Clark kneeling in his armor before the bound woman and Tim against the wall behind them. He frowned, coming over to carefully pick up the helmet Koriand'r had worn until a few minutes ago.

"What happened?" Bruce asked in his darkest Batman voice.

"I was patrolling over San Francisco," Clark explained with a nod at Koriand'r, "and found her leading a squad of Lionel's troops against a House there. I stopped them but Koriand'r attacked me. She's gifted, able to fly and fire blasts of energy from her hands. I was able to knock her out without harming either of us and brought her here. I think the helmet was controlling her."

"Destroy it," Koriand'r growled. "It is a monstrosity, a perversion of all that is good and right in the universe. Destroy it!"

"I need to understand what it is and how it works so that I can free everyone else enslaved by the helmets," Bruce said.

He knelt down by Koriand'r, studying her face. She seemed to loathe the helmet that she'd worn until recently, which Clark found a bit odd. He took it from Bruce, studying the inside of it. When he got it close to his head he heard a voice reciting what seemed to be a formula. Just the sound of it made him shudder and hold the helmet as far away from his head as possible.

"What does it do?" Clark asked with enough horror in his voice that they all stared at him. "Loneliness plus Alienation plus fear… What is that?"

"It is how he takes all self-will away," Koriand'r said with a full body shudder at hearing even that small portion of what the helmet said. "The equation gets into your mind and steals your joy, steals your freedom. It fills you with despair and the desperate need to do as He commands."

"Who is 'he'?" Bruce asked.

"Darkseid," Koriand'r replied, her voice hollow with horror. "He, he is a being seeking to be a god. He wants to control the entire universe, to have everyone worship him. If enough people worship and serve him he will gain the power to become a true god. Then he will war against the other Gods and destroy them, taking their power as his own. He means to remake the entire universe in his dark, twisted image."

Clark stared at the helmet for a long moment. No matter how much Bruce wanted to study the thing, Clark didn't think that was wise. It was almost impossible to know what the magic within it was capable of doing. Maybe this Darkseid already knew that Koriand'r had been freed. Maybe he was listening into their conversation through it.

"This is foul," Clark growled. "We have to stop it."

"We could study it, try to find a way to block it," Tim offered.

"Without powerful magic to counter it I doubt that would work," Clark said. "No, don't even think about arguing with me on that, Batman. I won't hear it. This is foul and evil and it must be stopped."

Clark crushed the helmet in his hands, crumpling the spelled steel as if it was tissue. There was a burst of magical energy from it but Clark's armor protected him from it. On the floor, Koriand'r gasped and then sagged, tears starting the flow down her cheeks. Her face looked much less haunted, younger somehow, now that the helmet was destroyed.

Despite Bruce's annoyed growl and Tim's little sigh of disappointment that the helmet had been destroyed, Clark knelt in front of Koriand'r. He put a hand on her manacles, which made her freeze and stare at him in what looked like fear. She couldn't see his face through the helmet so Clark pulled it off, letting her see what he looked like. That seemed to calm her a little bit because when he touched her manacles a second time she didn't freeze up.

"This is our home," Clark said gently. "We're a family as well as warriors battling against the evil in the world. We're working to gather a team to bring King Lionel down. I think… I really think that he has to be this Darkseid you spoke of. He changed years ago and became something much darker, more dangerous. If you'll work with us I'll let you go."

"I will be free?" Koriand'r asked as if she was sure that the answer would be no.

"You will," Clark said. "I'm actually a slave, Batman's slave, but that's to protect me from Lionel. Robin is as well, again to protect him from Lionel."

"I will never be a slave again," Koriand'r declared with a ferocious glare at Bruce.

"I don't allow female slaves in my household," Bruce said with a little shrug. "And my boys are slaves only because there is no other choice given the laws of the land. If I could free them I would."

Koriand'r frowned for a long moment, staring at first Bruce, then Tim and then finally at Clark. He had no idea what she saw in their faces but eventually she held her arms out to Clark so imperiously that he grinned. She might as well be a princess like Diana from the automatic assumption in her nonverbal command.

"I will fight with you," Koriand'r declared. "I am not sure that your Lionel is Darkseid but I wish to fight and stop the evil spreading through the universe."

"All right," Clark said with a grin that seemed to warm Koriand'r's heart.

He took off the manacles, freeing her. She took a deep breath and then grinned back at him with tears in her eyes once more. They seemed to be tears of joy this time. Clark helped her to her feet, laughing as she impulsively hugged him. Bruce grumbled at that but when she hugged him too he laughed quietly.

"Welcome to the side of Light, Koriand'r," Bruce said as he patted her back gently.


End file.
